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Catalan Company (1302-1388 AD)
DBA 165

By David Kuijt and Chris Brantley

The Catalan Company may have been the first true mercenary company in Western Europe, long before the Italian Condottas and the infamous Free Company of Sir John Hawkwood.

The Catalan Company was raised in 1281 to fight as mercenaries in the War of the Sicilian Vespers, where the Angevin and Aragonese dynasties fought over the Kingdom of Sicily. When the war ended 20 years later its commander was Rutger von Blum, better known as Roger de Flor. De Flor was originally a Templar sergeant. At the fall of Acre in 1291 he became rich using one of the Templar galleys to shuttle fugitives from Acre to Cyprus for enormous fees; later he was a pirate before he joined the Catalan Company and worked his way up to command it.

When peace broke out in Sicily the Catalan Company was surplus, and Sicily was strongly interested in seeing the last of them. De Flor negotiated a good deal with the Byzantine Emperor, Andronikos II, who desperately needed mercenaries to fight the Turks after the Byzantine at Nicomedia in July 1302.

The Company arrived at Constantinople in September 1303. They had no sooner arrived in Constantinople than they got involved in a bloody melee in the street with the local Genoese community. Soon afterwards they were shipped to Anatolia to reinforce Philadelphia, a Byzantine city entirely surrounded by the Turks for some years. A large force of Alan cavalry (survivors of Nicomedia) were sent with them but didn't stay long. In short order there was a falling out between the Catalans and the Alans, and a sharp skirmish in which the Alans suffered 300 casualties including the son of their chieftain. Afterwards all but 1000 of the Alans left.

The Catalans then conducted a raiding campaign throughout the Turkish-held lands in Byzantine Nicaea, landing at Cyzicus in 1303 and striking south to Philadelphia, passing through Sardis, Magnesia, and Ephesus before recrossing the Straights of Bosphorus to land at Neapolis in Gallipoli. By this point, the Catalans, who had recruited nearly 3000 Turkic horse into their ranks, were considered by the Byzantines to be little better than brigands and freebooters. The successes had inflated the already arrogant De Flor, leading him to entertain plans of a setting up his own version of the Byzantine Empire in Anatolia. Needless to say, this put him at odds with the Byzantine Emperor, and eventually led to De Flor's assassination in an Alan ambush at 1305 and the subsequent Byzantine massacre of as many of the Catalan Company as they could reach. Command of the Catalan company fell on Ramon Muntaner. Further losses occurred in conflict with the Genoese soon after, but Catalan and Aragonese reinforcements, plus the addition of a significant number of disaffected Turkish and Turkopouli deserters from the Byzantine army kept the Catalan Company in existence.

The Byzantine emperor then attempted to stop the Catalans with a large army, but was defeated at Apros in 1305; in part because the Alans, fearful of Catalan wrath at the loss of de Flor, deserted the Byzantine army in the field. The Catalans then advanced to Rhaidestos, which became a center of operations for an ineffectual blockade of Constantinope and raids throughout Thrace for approximately two years (1306-1307 AD).

By 1308 bloody internal dissension and Byzantine resistance to their constant raids from their base in Gallipoli forced them to move into Thessaly, in Northern Greece. Using Salonica as a center of operations, they raided that region and ravaged the rich Eastern Orthodox monasteries at Mt. Athos.

In 1310, the Catalans accepted a new employer, Walter de Brienne, the Duke of Athens and one of the promient leaders of the so-called Romanian Frankish "Latin Empire." They captured over thirty castles for him, but when peace was concluded in 1311 de Brienne attempted to dismiss them without pay, and answered their reasonable demands with insults. This led to their rebellion and open battle. They laid a trap for the Duke at Kephissos by arraying for battle behind a newly flooded field. Walter and his Frankish knights charged unknowingly into the mire and were destroyed by the resourceful Catalans. Duke Walter and a huge proportion of his knights were slaughtered, leaving the Catalans masters of his Duchy.

The Catalan Company asked the royal house of Catalonia-Aragon to provide them with a Duke as a figurehead; during the next seventy years they were "ruled" by a succession of eight absentee Dukes, none of which seem to have ever set foot in their Duchy. Having seized their own country, the Catalans then apparently settled down to defend it, and were able to hold Athens for nearly eighty years.

In 1379 another force from the Iberian peninsula, the Navarrese Company, moved on from its efforts to conquer Albania and attacked the Catalan Duchy of Athens in concert with a Florentine force. In 1388 a a Florentine army defeated the Catalans in a decisive battle at Kaledes (a.k.a. Peritheorion or Anastasioupolis), at the far end of Lake Vistonis on the road from Xanthi to Komotini. Following this defeat and the subsequent loss of their Duchy, the Catalan Grand Company disbanded.

Enemies

The Catalan Grand Company had a habit of making enemies of its friends and friends of its enemies, which included the Alans (55d), Romanian Franks (152), Late Byzantines (153), and Early Ottomans (160a).

Missing from the list above is the Navarrese Company, which can be easily represented by the Navarre army, DBA #156. Do not use the English troop option. Also missing are their final foes, the Florentines (DBA #169).

The Catalan Company never actually fought the Ottomans, although the Early Ottoman list can be used to represent the forces of the Anatolian Turkish Emirates they did battle. For slightly more accuracy, there is a Variant Army list prepared for the Anatolian Turks.

Similarly, there are more detailed Later Byzantine Variant army lists. In particular, the Catalan Company fought against the Palaiologan Byzantines (the Byzantine Empire), the Epirot Byzantines in Thessaly, and the Morean Byzantines in Greece.

Army Composition

Tactics

Despite its historical success, the Catalan Company appears to be a difficult army to master tactically. With four elements of Light Horse and five elements of Auxilia, the Catalan Company seems decidedly overmatched against heavier historical opponents: the Alans with their Blades, the Romanian Franks with their Knights, and the Later Byzantines/Early Ottomans with their Cavalry. The key for the Catalan Commander is effective use of their Auxilia, the fearsome Catalan Almughavars. In accounts of the Catalan Company's actions, it is invariably the Almughavars who are given credit for carrying the tide of battle. How to accomplish that in DBA terms? Extensive use of rough terrain. Rough terrain, however, diminishes the value of the Catalan Light Horse and Knights.

It is tempting to conclude that the reason this army performed well historically is because it avoided battle and used mobility and speed in a raiding strategy to stay one step ahead of its opponents. However, in most of its battles the Catalans appear to have been outnumbered. In particular they defeated a much larger Byzantine army at Apros, as well as the Romanian Franks (Duchy of Athens) at Kephissos in pitched battles. They did so, in part, because they were leaner and meaner than their "soft" opponents, a matter of troop quality or morale not reflected in the DBA game system.

Camp

A medieval style camp with both European and Turkic-style tents would reflect the mixed composition of the company. Since they often operated using a city or town as a base of operations for raiding throughout a district, a small section of city walls, dwellings, orchards, or similar built up areas would also be appropriate.

Miniatures

Figure recommendations for the Catalan Grand Company. Note that Essex sells a Catalan (DBA 165) army, but hasn't put the makeup of that army on their website yet.

For the Auxilia: Essex XMED7 (Almughavars) are excellent; there are only two figure variations in a pack. Irregular HR38 (Almugavar infantry) mix well with them, they also have two figure variations. If you want a little more variety, Essex MID65 (shieldless javelin) aren't bad, although not as good as the previous two codes mentioned.

For the Knights: Essex MID80-83A are particularly Spanish with distinctive shields and helmets. Note that the Catalan Company were mercenaries, coming off a long war in Sicily; as such they would not have had top-of-the-line flashy helmets and equipment. As such, in their first phase (before the conquest of Athens in 1311) they might be equipped as Spanish knights of the last half of the 13th century.

For the Aragonese Light Horse: Essex recommends using AA1 light horse figures with MS3 shields in their Medieval Spanish army; they would probably be appropriate. Essex MID84 light horse would probably be fine also. Irregular HR38 Genitor figures would be perfectly appropriate.

For the Turkish Light Horse: Any of Essex RNO25, RNO26, RNO27, RNO28 would be fine.

For the Albanian Light Horse: Essex EMED57 (Albanian light cavalry) are listed as the LH figures for the Essex Scanderberg Albanian army; without seeing them I'd guess that they are probably appropriate figures for 14th century Albanian LH.

Other Resources

Unfortunately, relatively little is available on the Catalan Grand Company on-line or in print. The following out-of-print resources were found listed in Amazon.Com's on-line bibliography and may be available for reference in library collections or through used booksellers:

• "Catalan Domination of Athens, 1311-1388," by Kenneth Meyer Setton.

• The Rise of the Aragonese-Catalan Empire, 1200-1350," by Jerome Lee Shneidman

• "The Problem of a Catalan Mediterranean Empire, 1229-1327," by J. N. Hillgarth

For discussion of the operations of the Catalan Company in Nicaea, Thrace and Macedonian, consult histories of the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Andronikos II (a.k.a. Andronicus II).

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Comments, questions or suggested additions to this page can be sent to David Kuijt

May 20, 1999. Some images added, and some changes to the section on miniatures.

April 21, 1999. Revisions and significant additions to the text; moved the site from Chris Brantley's page to David Kuijt's page preparatory to adding images.

Created: April 13, 1999